As far as I know there are three of us on this site who have got Hirst Arts moulds: General H has already chimed in, and then there is Vincent of Vega, who is the head man at TWF and lastly my good self.
If you searched here, or on TWF for some of VoV's links/posts you will see his efforts - he is a maniac though as he is casting bricks 24/7 it seems.
I bought several moulds last year direct from Bruce at Hirst Arts, after much advice from VoV, and he added some moulds to the order so we both benefitted from discount for a bulk buy.
It was actually better costwise to order direct from the USA than buy in the UK, and there was more choice of moulds too I think.
Over the years I have experimented with various ways of making scenery, particularly buildings, and am reasonably happy with our woods and hills, but never felt totally happy with card or foamboard buildings, or even simple walls from bits of polystyrene.
Admittedly my painting skills do little to enhance them.
In my opinion Hirst Arts moulds are fantastic, but they do take a lot of castings to get the necessary components for a big build. Most scenery is time consuming anyway, and I had been prepared to invest the time before in something that didn't always turn out successfully anyway.
With this product you are spending time making really good components, that you know are pretty much guaranteed to look great.
The main problem is with walls - the system started I guess for Dungeons and Dragons players and there are some really nice 'architectural pieces' moulds. When you want lots of bricks for big sections of walls is where the time really bites.
Each mould is about 6" x 4", and maybe if it is practically possible the range could do with, say, a couple of large moulds just to churn out bricks in quantity.
Something 12" square for example would increase production and reduce time enormously, but I am not sure if it is a manufacturing possibility.
You need to set up an area for production and then organise yourself to just cast loads of pieces.
I get into a routine where I cast on our battle table, whilst doing other bits on my worktable in my gaming room.
I have had several plays at small pieces of scenery, and though you learn from experience, there is no doubt they are much much better than my old card polystyrene or foamboard scenery.
The other beauty is that it does have the flexibility of Lego in that what you build is only limited by your imagination.
Relevant to the initial discussion about using pre-made castles I did a lot of exploring on this a couple of years back, and certainly what has been posted is pretty cost effective, and good imaginative accessorising, converting and painting goes a long way, but I always found something that put me off, mainly arising from these other points that we had considered:
The wall heights - we have siege towers and ladders, so they need to be compatible.
The ramparts space as well, is critical - you need to allow for the various bases combinations that might be invoved in battle. Current siege rules I think, allow a single rank of each army to fight, so immediately you could have 2 infantry bases 25x25, but what happens if you need to make room for a character or monster base on 40 or 50mm bases as well?
Then there is the need for room for war machines - a lot of the towers I have seen do not have appropriate space.
The interiors too - to comment on the 'back of the walls' bit mentioned earlier, - I do feel the castle walls should look as good from the inside, and have a sense of depth and strength.
The walls of Middenheim piece shown on the GW US site last year was pretty fantastic, and I particularly liked the details in the interior, such as stairways and lean-to buildings such as stabling stalls etc.
Weight for me is not an issue - something substantial will resist the gaming wear and tear much better, and I doubt any pieces will venture far from my gaming room very often anyway.
Having considered all this I felt, and still do, that a custom built solution is the real answer, and though it will take time I have made my choice......
We are currently amassing stockpiles for our castle project.
The plan is for several basic identical wall sections that will both interlink and 'attach' to various towers.
We have worked out plans for towers built in sections that would allow the tower to be used as a stand alone, or by inserting an extra or different 'middle' section the tower would line up with the walls with appropriate doors to give access to the ramparts of the wall sections.
The object is to give us the set up variety to have a complete castle attackable from all sides, or to run a wall and tower combination right across the board.
The idealistic future would be to play a 'city' siege campaign, where the walls could fall and then you are into a 'city fight' through the streets, and maybe then going further to the Inner Keep (which is the castle bits reformed ) last stand.
[ Ok, so much like the General's current plans for his farewell to 6th Edition.
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